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Of consultation process and heritage city

The Bulk Water Supply Project (BWSP) to be implemented by the Baguio Water District (BWD) is among the hottest issues in the city. The matter is not whether the water to be sourced out from Itogon, Benguet is safe or not. The question is whether or not the Itogon folk and the Baguio residents were consulted over the issue. Itogon is where the water will be sourced out while the Baguio residents are the target beneficiaries.

Consultation is a basic right of every citizen affected with any project. The people’s or community’s position is always required. Whether they agree or disagree with such projects, the affected people or community have to be consulted by the proponents and concerned government agency or agencies.

This right to consultation is recognized as a basic right under our constitution. To implement this spirit of the constitutional provision, there are laws enacted recognizing the right to consultation.

The Local Government Code or RA 7160 is among the laws that contains provisions for the right to consultation. Specifically its Sections 2, paragraph c, Section 26, and Section 27 mandate consultation.

Sec. 2, par. c provides that the State conduct periodic consultations with appropriate local government units, non-government units and people’s organizations, and other concerned sectors of the community before any project or program is implemented in their respective jurisdictions.

Sec. 26 also provides that: “It shall be the duty of every national agency or government-owned or controlled corporation authorizing or involved in the planning and implementation of any project or program that may cause pollution, climatic change, depletion of non-renewable resources, loss of crop land, rangeland or forest cover, and extinction of animal or plant species, to consult with the local government units, non-governmental organizations, and other sectors concerned and explain the goals and objectives of the project or program, its impact upon the people and the community in terms of environmental or ecological balance, and the measures that will be undertaken to prevent or minimize the adverse effect thereof.”

Sec. 27 of the same law provides: “No project or program shall be implemented by the government authorities unless the consultations mentioned in Sections 2 and 26 are complied with, AND prior approval of the sanggunian (council) concerned is obtained.

The provisions require first, consultation among affected sectors both in Baguio and Itogon; and second the prior approval from the sanggunian concerned. In the case of the BWSP, consultations should be done among the LGUs, NGOs, and affected sectors in Itogon where the water will be sourced out and those in Baguio who will supposedly benefit from the project. The project must also be endorsed by the concerned sanggunian in this case the sanggunian of Baguio City and Itogon. May I correct the lawyer of the BWD about his insistence that the endorsement and/or consultation is not needed.

The deeper question on this issue however is more on the rights of the people to the resources. Why grant the utilization to a corporate interest, Benguet Corporation, who had depleted the mineral resources of Itogon and now plans to deny the community of their water resources?

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Last week, I was able to visit Vigan, Ilocos Sur. With me was another Baguio journalist, and an officer of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP). After our talks before a region-wide gathering of campus writers, we exercised our right as local tourists. We visited some historical and heritage parks in Vigan City. It was my first visit to Vigan. We saw the old churches and other historical sites that date back to the Spanish colonial period.

There are several locally produced food in the area. Among those I took as pasalubong are the sweet chichacorn, tinubong and bibingka, empanada, among others. I also bought some longganisa and a kilo of bagnet. But observable was the proliferation of big food chains, such as MacDonald’s, which, according to the local stall owners, compete with locally produced food.

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I was able to talk with Mayor Ferdinand Medina of Vigan City during the opening of the campus journalists’ gathering at the University of Northern Philippines. I got interested in their project of documenting history. He claimed that students are interviewing the old folk and getting stories first-hand of their experiences during the World War. Through the project, the students’ skills in documentation are not only honed, but the stories from the old folk are also told directly to them. The local government’s plan to publish their documented stories from the old folk will surely enrich the history of Ilocos and Vigan specifically.

By the way, in our story last week about the campus journalism gathering, an editorial staff of the NORDIS unknowingly designated Honorable Medina as the Vigan Vice mayor. In behalf of the staff, I apologize. We have no intention to demote you, Sir. #

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